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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Dr. Lou Pizzarello; Residents of Small Syrian Village Still Speak Aramaic

Aired February 28, 2004 - 18:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here are the top stories at this hour. Palestinian witnesses say a missile from an Israeli helicopter was fired today at a car in Gaza City. Sources say four people including a boy who was standing nearby were killed. Fifteen others were wounded. Israeli says the missile strike targeted senior members of the Islamic Jihad's military wing.
Security is tight in Karbala, Iraq for the first Ashoura feast since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government. The feast commemorates the death of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Hussein. An estimated one and a half million Shiite Muslims are converging on the holy city. As the turmoil in Haiti continues, the White House is urging Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to accept responsibility for the chaos.

He says Aristide is largely to blame for the crisis. Earlier, the Haitian leader vowed to stay in power.

"Miami Herald" photographer, Peter Andrew Bosch, has been braving the thick of the turmoil in Haiti captured in pictures. So we asked him to comment on some of his most gripping images.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

PETER ANDREW BOSCH, PHOTOGRAPHER, MIAMI HERALD: My name is Peter Andrew Bosch. I've worked for the "Miami Herald" for the past 21 years and right now, I'm in Haiti. I've been on the road the whole time following the rebels. I went up to Hench (ph), on the 17th, February 17, and Hench (ph) was already taken by the resistance front.

In light of the recruits that they have recruited from town to town, they're very camera shy. They're moving with the movement, but they don't want their faces to be photographed. That person was standing next to another person that had a gas mask on. They did not want their faces to be identified. And right now, I'm in Cap-Haitien.

I couldn't sleep on Saturday night and I (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that I needed to be there, so I got up at 5:00 that morning and there was a small plane coming up here that morning at 7:00. And probably about 11:00, they took the police station and that's when they started securing the area and gunfire all over. The only resistance that they had had already fled.

A couple of people have been killed, left in the streets and left in some of the buildings. The people proceeded to loot the police station and then they burned it down to the ground and then went out looking for any Aristide supporters. The police stations are generally the first thing that they take. They take the police stations and then they free the prisoners.

They have received a lot of their weapons from the police stations that they have raided and then they generally let the public loot it and then they burn it down. That evening, they proceeded to loot the world food program warehouse which was full of lentil beans. The resistance front the next day secured the port and started securing the whole city and arresting all the looters that they could get.

That was down by the port. Apparently this gentleman had displayed aggressive acts towards one of the resistant soldiers and he was shot. There's a lot of uncertainty of what's going to happen, whether Aristide is going to resign and leave the country. I would like the photographs to educate people of what really is going on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: The rebels are now just 30 miles outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince. That city could fall some time in the next 24 hours. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Back in this country, they are speaking frankly in Boston these days on a touchy subject. We're talking about race. It's an innovative plan officials hope will foster better understanding in a city that's known its share of racial strife. Our Adaora Udoji reports that some of the best lessons on race relations come from where you least expect them.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shannon Guillery, a broadcast professional, never thought she'd see this day in her native city.

SHANNON GUILLERY, CITY-WIDE DIALOGUES PARTICIPANT: I could not believe that Boston was finally ready to talk about race.

UDOJI: But the people are ready to talk, and across the city at gatherings like this, they are taking on the city's legacy of racial strife.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In elementary school, who had at least very close friendship with a child of another race?

UDOJI: Few hands go up in this group of blacks and whites, among them immigrants, but that's why they came, to penetrate decades of distrust, built through the turbulence of the civil rights movement of the '60s, the explosive tension of school desegregation in the '70s.

GUILLERY: As a child, when they have the anti-busing situation, I was very afraid of Irish people, quite frankly, because I thought a lot of this happened in South Boston.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Making friends with one of my close African American friends. Now as an adult, I just remember how awkward I felt at the beginning.

UDOJI: The gathering reflects an ambitious effort inspired by the local Urban League and other advocates.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're an honorary minority.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Troy, that's so generous. I mean ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What it's helped us realize is that, you know, something I always knew, we're more the same than we are different.

UDOJI: What's more, organizers say, they've discovered people in this city now equally divided between white and people of color were just looking for a safe outlet.

(on camera): A safe place to talk about complex and emotional racial issues, and they know that because more than 1,000 people have signed up in 20 neighborhoods.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The dialogues will help tear down stereotypes, increase people's understanding and appreciation of people from other ethnic and racial groups, often for the first time in their lives.

UDOJI: No one expects quick solutions. They're hoping for greater understanding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like what I have seen here.

UDOJI: In her lifetime, Guillery has witnessed change come slowly. Like many who came this day, she'd like to speed it up.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, that is a story about seeing with your heart. Now let's talk about literally seeing with your eyes. Many of you who are watching this show may one day be blind. That is because millions of Americans are unknowingly harboring one of three sight-robbing eye diseases, glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

You might think you're safe if you're young, but some of these diseases can actually begin damaging your eyes as early as your teens.

Dr. Lou Pizzarello is a spokesperson for Prevent Blindness America, a group which just received a five-year grant to fund free eye exams. He's also an ophthalmology professor at Columbia University in New York. Doctor, thanks so much for joining us.

DR. LOU PIZZARELLO, PREVENT BLINDNESS AMERICA: You're welcome. LIN: You know, we were ...

PIZZARELLO: It's a pleasure to be here.

LIN: And a pleasure to have you. We were really intrigued by the story because when it crossed the wire services, I think, we're talking about not of millions, but perhaps as many as 80 million Americans who might be affected by these diseases, might actually go blind and yet, it's going undetected. How can that be?

PIZZARELLO: Well, it's mostly age related. As we get older, we are at higher risk for getting a number of eye diseases, particularly the three that you mentioned, and so that's the overall group at risk. And we need to get the message out that you don't need to go blind, that you can do things.

LIN: Yes, but when you say older, I mean, you're actually really talking about people even as young as in their 40s.

PIZZARELLO: That's correct.

LIN: But they generally don't get the organic testing that's necessary? I mean, when I go to get a new pair of glasses, wouldn't they detect something wrong?

PIZZARELLO: It depends where you go. You may find a practitioner who will give you a thorough exam, but we encourage people to have a complete eye exam, including dilation of the pupils.

LIN: All right. And that involves that puff of air, right, where they blow a puff of air at your eyeball?

PIZZARELLO: Yes, yes, that's part of it. That's part of it.

LIN: That's kind of intimidating.

PIZZARELLO: Screening for glaucoma.

LIN: Yes, but why is it that most people don't know that the testing is necessary? And how are they to know, I mean, forget the age. I mean, are there early symptoms that people should be aware of?

PIZZARELLO: Many of these diseases have no symptoms at all and that's why it's important as you get over the age of 50 to have an examination. Prevent Blindness America has been working for many years to get the message out and we need to do more.

We have 20,000 dedicated people across the country who are out there screening for these diseases, and now with the support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we can have a much greater effect.

LIN: What can you do to actually prevent these diseases?

PIZZARELLO: Very little to prevent the disease but you can prevent the blindness. About half the blindness can be prevented by appropriate treatment. Some of the treatments are quite simple.

LIN: Such as?

PIZZARELLO: Well, you can find out you have glaucoma and receive laser treatment or have eye medications given to you. In the case of diabetic retinopathy, you can have fairly painless laser treatments that will prevent the blindness due to diabetic retinopathy.

LIN: But if you find that your vision is suddenly going, is it too late?

PIZZARELLO: No, it may not be. And one simple thing you can do, and I would ask everyone to do this, is to test each eye separately. Make sure you don't have an eye that's already losing sight and if you are starting to get a blur in your vision, there's usually plenty of time to make a difference and to prevent blindness.

LIN: All right Dr. Pizzarello, you give us some hope and hope we have not the blurry eyed lack of sleep or perhaps maybe that is better than getting glaucoma. Thank you very much, Dr. Pizzarello.

PIZZARELLO: Thank you.

LIN: Good luck with your project. Well, the title of this next story is "Dress for Success." It's not just a slogan, it's a program that provides clothing, career development and moral support for more than 45,000 unemployed women each year. Producer/editor Bryan Coziski (ph) shows us how it works.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have no money, and my wardrobe consists of jeans because I've been out of the workplace for such a long time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, she was already upbeat and very popular, but she's been, you know, trying to find a job for a year and that can really wear on someone. She was working until 1999 and her mother became ill and she moved back home to take care of her mother and then moved to Atlanta and began looking for work again. She had, you know, a lot of experience. She was continually looking for work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I went on an interview with the state for a part-time position and all I had was a khaki skirt that I had bought from a thrift store and I rushed out the day before with my pennies and bought a tacky little, you know, pink blouse to go with it and believe me, when I went there and other people were dressed to the nines, I felt better.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I want to try to focus on the basic colors because if you get the basic colors in your wardrobe, you can expand it like crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We hope women who are transitioning from wealth and work or domestic shelters or just transitioning into the workplace have appropriate clothing to wear to those job interviews. A lot of folks would like support for these women. Once they get the job, they either can come in and participate in our professional women's group and this is a networking group. Our goal is to help women become self-sufficient.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just does so much more for your confidence when you know that you look good on the outside. When you feel good about yourself, when I feel good about myself, I can project that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then she called me like soon after she got her job, which is real exciting because she found out on a Friday and she didn't think she was going to hear until a Monday and so, you know, I'm just thrilled that, you know, we were able to help her through a difficult time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I plan to stay on this job for a very long time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Good for her. All right. Talk about dress for success. We are going to go live from the red carpet on Oscar eve. And did you think "The Passion of Christ" was the only place in which Aramaic was actually spoken? Well, you'd be wrong. We report on one village that still speaks the language of Jesus.

And what is an Oscar worth to a movie? We break it down in cold hard cash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: This hour's top stories, the White House statement condemning the violence in Haiti places blame on President Aristide. Police have detained a man in the Valentine's Day disappearance of a family in Mississippi. And an Israeli air strike killed an Islamic militant in the Gaza strip. Mel Gibson's move, "The Passion of Christ" has hit many religious nerves across the country and in fact, across the world.

But in Syria, it's renewing passion for an ancient and nearly lost language. CNN's Rula Amin has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING ARAMAIC)

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Passion of Christ," the story of Jesus' last hours on Earth. What they will experience is a film shot entirely in Latin and Aramaic, a language that has barely survived.

But here in Maaloula, most of the 5,000 residents speak the language. They are among the very few people left on Earth who still actually converse in the ancient language.

In school here, the children learn Arabic, the official language in Syria. But as they leave their classrooms, they switch to Aramaic. We do a field survey, how many of them can speak Aramaic? It's hard to be accurate, but it's safe to say a pretty high percentage do. But the youngsters admit not all are fluent. It's difficult to be.

Aramaic was at its height in the 10th century B.C., but it wasn't a national language.

It was the language of traders, much like English is the language of commerce today. Slowly, it was replaced by other languages, especially after the Arabs conquered this region more than 1,400 years ago. Arabic became the dominant language, but not in Maaloula.

(on camera): There are different theories that attempt to explain how did people here manage to preserve such an ancient language?

One theory says, it's the remote and isolated location of Maaloula which protected it from outside influence.

(voice-over): Most people here can speak Aramaic, but nobody knows how to write it, except this man. Jor Gryzala (ph) is (UNINTELLIGIBLE). His passion is Aramaic. He has worked for years to document an Aramaic alphabet so that people can start reading and writing Maaloula's own dialect of Aramaic. It's all based on his personal efforts.

How accurate or scientific are his findings is not exactly clear, but he's trying. "This is our heritage," he says, "and people of this town must take care of it."

Father Huri (ph) says what people speak here is the proper Aramaic and he hopes the movie gets it right. The film's dialect coach, a linguistic professor and Jesuit priest says, translating the movie was a labor of love with far-reaching benefits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are many Aramaic speaking communities, especially those who use it for liturgy, Eastern Christian songs, who have said to me, you know, Aramaic lives, more power to it. It's brought world attention to Aramaic and to the problems of the survival of the language.

AMIN: For now at least, it lives another day.

Rula Amin, Maaloula, Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: We are one day away from Hollywood's biggest night of the year. The 76th Annual Oscars will be handed out tomorrow and boy, oh boy, Kendis Gibson is standing on the red carpet outside the Kodak Theater. Kendis, how does it work out that all these guys who never even show up for the Awards are suddenly nominated for the awards?

KENDIS GIBSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, that's really an interesting thing this year around, Carol, because for lack of a better term, these are considered Hollywood bad boys, talking about Sean Penn, Bill Murray and Johnny Depp. But it's very likely come tomorrow night in the building behind me at the Kodak Theater, one of them is going to take home the Oscar for their respective movies.

Let's talk first about Bill Murray, for example. Consider, you know, movie fans all over absolutely love Bill Murray and think he's a wonderful comedic actor, but here in the Hollywood community, in a lot of ways, people think that he's kind of a little difficult to work with. He sits on a lot of scripts, for example, for "Lost in Translation," Sofia Coppola and all their crew were in Japan and Tokyo and didn't know up until the day before shooting that whether or not Bill was actually even going to take part in the project. And this was a script and a movie that was written specifically for him by Sofia Coppola. Things worked out, he got nominated for the best actor Oscar and, you know, he won the award at the Golden Globes.

Also you have -- you have Johnny Depp, whereas, you know, in Hollywood, Johnny Depp has been, you know, seen to be a little bit weird, you know, a little eccentric. He got nominated at the Golden Globes and didn't win, and reportedly just stormed out of the building after he lost and then didn't show up as a result at the Screen Actor's Guild. And then, you know, gets nominated and won the BAFTA Awards.

So, you know, it's not clear whether or not he's going to show up and what his reaction is going to be. And then of course, you have Sean Penn, reputed bad boy here in Hollywood. And he did show up at the Golden Globes, decided not to show up actually -- he didn't show up at the -- he did show up, rather I should say, at the Screen Actor's Guild and did not win. And you know, he lately has gone through a metamorphosis, Carol, to try to soften his image, bringing his mom around with him.

LIN: That's what parenthood does, you know? Kind of softens your image or just makes you plain tired. Hey listen, Kendis, we've got time for a quick little backgrounder. Literally, I'm just taking in the scene behind you. It looks gorgeous. This is literally the red carpet where all the stars are going to be coming down, right?

GIBSON: That is it. This is literally the red carpet, and take a look around and you'll see that the workers are still working at getting, you know, the tons of flowers that are going to line the red carpet. They're fixing like -- cutting some of the red carpet and getting it together.

This is actually going to be set and, you know, ready to go by tonight, but of course, there's probably still going to be a little bit of work that has to be done tomorrow. Most of the press already here though on the scene.

LIN: All right. Lots of jeans and t-shirts to be replaced by gowns and tuxedos tomorrow night.

GIBSON: Yes. Yes, indeed.

LIN: Thank you very much, Kendis. Well, you can see more of Hollywood's' Oscar fest Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Our very own Daryn Kagan will host a special live program from the red carpet ahead of the honors for Hollywood's most talented.

All right. That's it for us.

At 10:00 Eastern, an intimate interview with the director of "My Left Foot" and "In the Name of the Father." Jim Sheridan talked to me about his personal new film, "In America."

But right now, Mark Shields is with us to tell us what THE GANG has. Hi there, Mark.

MARK SHIELDS, HOST, CAPITAL GANG: Hi, Carol. Carol, the Republican Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire, joins THE CAPITAL GANG to look at President Bush as he seizes the gay marriage issue, the super Tuesday showdown between John Kerry and John Edwards, and a serious indictment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. All that and much more right here next on CNN.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Syrian Village Still Speak Aramaic>


Aired February 28, 2004 - 18:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here are the top stories at this hour. Palestinian witnesses say a missile from an Israeli helicopter was fired today at a car in Gaza City. Sources say four people including a boy who was standing nearby were killed. Fifteen others were wounded. Israeli says the missile strike targeted senior members of the Islamic Jihad's military wing.
Security is tight in Karbala, Iraq for the first Ashoura feast since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government. The feast commemorates the death of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Hussein. An estimated one and a half million Shiite Muslims are converging on the holy city. As the turmoil in Haiti continues, the White House is urging Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to accept responsibility for the chaos.

He says Aristide is largely to blame for the crisis. Earlier, the Haitian leader vowed to stay in power.

"Miami Herald" photographer, Peter Andrew Bosch, has been braving the thick of the turmoil in Haiti captured in pictures. So we asked him to comment on some of his most gripping images.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

PETER ANDREW BOSCH, PHOTOGRAPHER, MIAMI HERALD: My name is Peter Andrew Bosch. I've worked for the "Miami Herald" for the past 21 years and right now, I'm in Haiti. I've been on the road the whole time following the rebels. I went up to Hench (ph), on the 17th, February 17, and Hench (ph) was already taken by the resistance front.

In light of the recruits that they have recruited from town to town, they're very camera shy. They're moving with the movement, but they don't want their faces to be photographed. That person was standing next to another person that had a gas mask on. They did not want their faces to be identified. And right now, I'm in Cap-Haitien.

I couldn't sleep on Saturday night and I (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that I needed to be there, so I got up at 5:00 that morning and there was a small plane coming up here that morning at 7:00. And probably about 11:00, they took the police station and that's when they started securing the area and gunfire all over. The only resistance that they had had already fled.

A couple of people have been killed, left in the streets and left in some of the buildings. The people proceeded to loot the police station and then they burned it down to the ground and then went out looking for any Aristide supporters. The police stations are generally the first thing that they take. They take the police stations and then they free the prisoners.

They have received a lot of their weapons from the police stations that they have raided and then they generally let the public loot it and then they burn it down. That evening, they proceeded to loot the world food program warehouse which was full of lentil beans. The resistance front the next day secured the port and started securing the whole city and arresting all the looters that they could get.

That was down by the port. Apparently this gentleman had displayed aggressive acts towards one of the resistant soldiers and he was shot. There's a lot of uncertainty of what's going to happen, whether Aristide is going to resign and leave the country. I would like the photographs to educate people of what really is going on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: The rebels are now just 30 miles outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince. That city could fall some time in the next 24 hours. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Back in this country, they are speaking frankly in Boston these days on a touchy subject. We're talking about race. It's an innovative plan officials hope will foster better understanding in a city that's known its share of racial strife. Our Adaora Udoji reports that some of the best lessons on race relations come from where you least expect them.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shannon Guillery, a broadcast professional, never thought she'd see this day in her native city.

SHANNON GUILLERY, CITY-WIDE DIALOGUES PARTICIPANT: I could not believe that Boston was finally ready to talk about race.

UDOJI: But the people are ready to talk, and across the city at gatherings like this, they are taking on the city's legacy of racial strife.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In elementary school, who had at least very close friendship with a child of another race?

UDOJI: Few hands go up in this group of blacks and whites, among them immigrants, but that's why they came, to penetrate decades of distrust, built through the turbulence of the civil rights movement of the '60s, the explosive tension of school desegregation in the '70s.

GUILLERY: As a child, when they have the anti-busing situation, I was very afraid of Irish people, quite frankly, because I thought a lot of this happened in South Boston.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Making friends with one of my close African American friends. Now as an adult, I just remember how awkward I felt at the beginning.

UDOJI: The gathering reflects an ambitious effort inspired by the local Urban League and other advocates.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're an honorary minority.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Troy, that's so generous. I mean ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What it's helped us realize is that, you know, something I always knew, we're more the same than we are different.

UDOJI: What's more, organizers say, they've discovered people in this city now equally divided between white and people of color were just looking for a safe outlet.

(on camera): A safe place to talk about complex and emotional racial issues, and they know that because more than 1,000 people have signed up in 20 neighborhoods.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The dialogues will help tear down stereotypes, increase people's understanding and appreciation of people from other ethnic and racial groups, often for the first time in their lives.

UDOJI: No one expects quick solutions. They're hoping for greater understanding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like what I have seen here.

UDOJI: In her lifetime, Guillery has witnessed change come slowly. Like many who came this day, she'd like to speed it up.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, that is a story about seeing with your heart. Now let's talk about literally seeing with your eyes. Many of you who are watching this show may one day be blind. That is because millions of Americans are unknowingly harboring one of three sight-robbing eye diseases, glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

You might think you're safe if you're young, but some of these diseases can actually begin damaging your eyes as early as your teens.

Dr. Lou Pizzarello is a spokesperson for Prevent Blindness America, a group which just received a five-year grant to fund free eye exams. He's also an ophthalmology professor at Columbia University in New York. Doctor, thanks so much for joining us.

DR. LOU PIZZARELLO, PREVENT BLINDNESS AMERICA: You're welcome. LIN: You know, we were ...

PIZZARELLO: It's a pleasure to be here.

LIN: And a pleasure to have you. We were really intrigued by the story because when it crossed the wire services, I think, we're talking about not of millions, but perhaps as many as 80 million Americans who might be affected by these diseases, might actually go blind and yet, it's going undetected. How can that be?

PIZZARELLO: Well, it's mostly age related. As we get older, we are at higher risk for getting a number of eye diseases, particularly the three that you mentioned, and so that's the overall group at risk. And we need to get the message out that you don't need to go blind, that you can do things.

LIN: Yes, but when you say older, I mean, you're actually really talking about people even as young as in their 40s.

PIZZARELLO: That's correct.

LIN: But they generally don't get the organic testing that's necessary? I mean, when I go to get a new pair of glasses, wouldn't they detect something wrong?

PIZZARELLO: It depends where you go. You may find a practitioner who will give you a thorough exam, but we encourage people to have a complete eye exam, including dilation of the pupils.

LIN: All right. And that involves that puff of air, right, where they blow a puff of air at your eyeball?

PIZZARELLO: Yes, yes, that's part of it. That's part of it.

LIN: That's kind of intimidating.

PIZZARELLO: Screening for glaucoma.

LIN: Yes, but why is it that most people don't know that the testing is necessary? And how are they to know, I mean, forget the age. I mean, are there early symptoms that people should be aware of?

PIZZARELLO: Many of these diseases have no symptoms at all and that's why it's important as you get over the age of 50 to have an examination. Prevent Blindness America has been working for many years to get the message out and we need to do more.

We have 20,000 dedicated people across the country who are out there screening for these diseases, and now with the support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we can have a much greater effect.

LIN: What can you do to actually prevent these diseases?

PIZZARELLO: Very little to prevent the disease but you can prevent the blindness. About half the blindness can be prevented by appropriate treatment. Some of the treatments are quite simple.

LIN: Such as?

PIZZARELLO: Well, you can find out you have glaucoma and receive laser treatment or have eye medications given to you. In the case of diabetic retinopathy, you can have fairly painless laser treatments that will prevent the blindness due to diabetic retinopathy.

LIN: But if you find that your vision is suddenly going, is it too late?

PIZZARELLO: No, it may not be. And one simple thing you can do, and I would ask everyone to do this, is to test each eye separately. Make sure you don't have an eye that's already losing sight and if you are starting to get a blur in your vision, there's usually plenty of time to make a difference and to prevent blindness.

LIN: All right Dr. Pizzarello, you give us some hope and hope we have not the blurry eyed lack of sleep or perhaps maybe that is better than getting glaucoma. Thank you very much, Dr. Pizzarello.

PIZZARELLO: Thank you.

LIN: Good luck with your project. Well, the title of this next story is "Dress for Success." It's not just a slogan, it's a program that provides clothing, career development and moral support for more than 45,000 unemployed women each year. Producer/editor Bryan Coziski (ph) shows us how it works.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have no money, and my wardrobe consists of jeans because I've been out of the workplace for such a long time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, she was already upbeat and very popular, but she's been, you know, trying to find a job for a year and that can really wear on someone. She was working until 1999 and her mother became ill and she moved back home to take care of her mother and then moved to Atlanta and began looking for work again. She had, you know, a lot of experience. She was continually looking for work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I went on an interview with the state for a part-time position and all I had was a khaki skirt that I had bought from a thrift store and I rushed out the day before with my pennies and bought a tacky little, you know, pink blouse to go with it and believe me, when I went there and other people were dressed to the nines, I felt better.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I want to try to focus on the basic colors because if you get the basic colors in your wardrobe, you can expand it like crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We hope women who are transitioning from wealth and work or domestic shelters or just transitioning into the workplace have appropriate clothing to wear to those job interviews. A lot of folks would like support for these women. Once they get the job, they either can come in and participate in our professional women's group and this is a networking group. Our goal is to help women become self-sufficient.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just does so much more for your confidence when you know that you look good on the outside. When you feel good about yourself, when I feel good about myself, I can project that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then she called me like soon after she got her job, which is real exciting because she found out on a Friday and she didn't think she was going to hear until a Monday and so, you know, I'm just thrilled that, you know, we were able to help her through a difficult time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I plan to stay on this job for a very long time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Good for her. All right. Talk about dress for success. We are going to go live from the red carpet on Oscar eve. And did you think "The Passion of Christ" was the only place in which Aramaic was actually spoken? Well, you'd be wrong. We report on one village that still speaks the language of Jesus.

And what is an Oscar worth to a movie? We break it down in cold hard cash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: This hour's top stories, the White House statement condemning the violence in Haiti places blame on President Aristide. Police have detained a man in the Valentine's Day disappearance of a family in Mississippi. And an Israeli air strike killed an Islamic militant in the Gaza strip. Mel Gibson's move, "The Passion of Christ" has hit many religious nerves across the country and in fact, across the world.

But in Syria, it's renewing passion for an ancient and nearly lost language. CNN's Rula Amin has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING ARAMAIC)

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Passion of Christ," the story of Jesus' last hours on Earth. What they will experience is a film shot entirely in Latin and Aramaic, a language that has barely survived.

But here in Maaloula, most of the 5,000 residents speak the language. They are among the very few people left on Earth who still actually converse in the ancient language.

In school here, the children learn Arabic, the official language in Syria. But as they leave their classrooms, they switch to Aramaic. We do a field survey, how many of them can speak Aramaic? It's hard to be accurate, but it's safe to say a pretty high percentage do. But the youngsters admit not all are fluent. It's difficult to be.

Aramaic was at its height in the 10th century B.C., but it wasn't a national language.

It was the language of traders, much like English is the language of commerce today. Slowly, it was replaced by other languages, especially after the Arabs conquered this region more than 1,400 years ago. Arabic became the dominant language, but not in Maaloula.

(on camera): There are different theories that attempt to explain how did people here manage to preserve such an ancient language?

One theory says, it's the remote and isolated location of Maaloula which protected it from outside influence.

(voice-over): Most people here can speak Aramaic, but nobody knows how to write it, except this man. Jor Gryzala (ph) is (UNINTELLIGIBLE). His passion is Aramaic. He has worked for years to document an Aramaic alphabet so that people can start reading and writing Maaloula's own dialect of Aramaic. It's all based on his personal efforts.

How accurate or scientific are his findings is not exactly clear, but he's trying. "This is our heritage," he says, "and people of this town must take care of it."

Father Huri (ph) says what people speak here is the proper Aramaic and he hopes the movie gets it right. The film's dialect coach, a linguistic professor and Jesuit priest says, translating the movie was a labor of love with far-reaching benefits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are many Aramaic speaking communities, especially those who use it for liturgy, Eastern Christian songs, who have said to me, you know, Aramaic lives, more power to it. It's brought world attention to Aramaic and to the problems of the survival of the language.

AMIN: For now at least, it lives another day.

Rula Amin, Maaloula, Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: We are one day away from Hollywood's biggest night of the year. The 76th Annual Oscars will be handed out tomorrow and boy, oh boy, Kendis Gibson is standing on the red carpet outside the Kodak Theater. Kendis, how does it work out that all these guys who never even show up for the Awards are suddenly nominated for the awards?

KENDIS GIBSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, that's really an interesting thing this year around, Carol, because for lack of a better term, these are considered Hollywood bad boys, talking about Sean Penn, Bill Murray and Johnny Depp. But it's very likely come tomorrow night in the building behind me at the Kodak Theater, one of them is going to take home the Oscar for their respective movies.

Let's talk first about Bill Murray, for example. Consider, you know, movie fans all over absolutely love Bill Murray and think he's a wonderful comedic actor, but here in the Hollywood community, in a lot of ways, people think that he's kind of a little difficult to work with. He sits on a lot of scripts, for example, for "Lost in Translation," Sofia Coppola and all their crew were in Japan and Tokyo and didn't know up until the day before shooting that whether or not Bill was actually even going to take part in the project. And this was a script and a movie that was written specifically for him by Sofia Coppola. Things worked out, he got nominated for the best actor Oscar and, you know, he won the award at the Golden Globes.

Also you have -- you have Johnny Depp, whereas, you know, in Hollywood, Johnny Depp has been, you know, seen to be a little bit weird, you know, a little eccentric. He got nominated at the Golden Globes and didn't win, and reportedly just stormed out of the building after he lost and then didn't show up as a result at the Screen Actor's Guild. And then, you know, gets nominated and won the BAFTA Awards.

So, you know, it's not clear whether or not he's going to show up and what his reaction is going to be. And then of course, you have Sean Penn, reputed bad boy here in Hollywood. And he did show up at the Golden Globes, decided not to show up actually -- he didn't show up at the -- he did show up, rather I should say, at the Screen Actor's Guild and did not win. And you know, he lately has gone through a metamorphosis, Carol, to try to soften his image, bringing his mom around with him.

LIN: That's what parenthood does, you know? Kind of softens your image or just makes you plain tired. Hey listen, Kendis, we've got time for a quick little backgrounder. Literally, I'm just taking in the scene behind you. It looks gorgeous. This is literally the red carpet where all the stars are going to be coming down, right?

GIBSON: That is it. This is literally the red carpet, and take a look around and you'll see that the workers are still working at getting, you know, the tons of flowers that are going to line the red carpet. They're fixing like -- cutting some of the red carpet and getting it together.

This is actually going to be set and, you know, ready to go by tonight, but of course, there's probably still going to be a little bit of work that has to be done tomorrow. Most of the press already here though on the scene.

LIN: All right. Lots of jeans and t-shirts to be replaced by gowns and tuxedos tomorrow night.

GIBSON: Yes. Yes, indeed.

LIN: Thank you very much, Kendis. Well, you can see more of Hollywood's' Oscar fest Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Our very own Daryn Kagan will host a special live program from the red carpet ahead of the honors for Hollywood's most talented.

All right. That's it for us.

At 10:00 Eastern, an intimate interview with the director of "My Left Foot" and "In the Name of the Father." Jim Sheridan talked to me about his personal new film, "In America."

But right now, Mark Shields is with us to tell us what THE GANG has. Hi there, Mark.

MARK SHIELDS, HOST, CAPITAL GANG: Hi, Carol. Carol, the Republican Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire, joins THE CAPITAL GANG to look at President Bush as he seizes the gay marriage issue, the super Tuesday showdown between John Kerry and John Edwards, and a serious indictment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. All that and much more right here next on CNN.

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Syrian Village Still Speak Aramaic>